Contents

The Movie

Synopsis

The hobgoblins in Hobgoblins

The film opens with a security guard named Dennis investigating a deserted film vault at an old movie studio. While inside, his fantasy of being a rock star comes to life, but he dies while performing on stage. His boss, Mr. McCreedy (Jeffrey Culver), closes the door upon discovering the body.

A young man named Kevin (Tom Bartlett) takes the vacant job so that he can impress his girlfriend Amy (Paige Sullivan). After his first shift, he drives home to Amy, finding that his two friends, the sex-crazedDaphne (Kelley Palmer) and the dorky Kyle (Steven Boggs), waiting for him, and Daphne's Army boyfriend Nick (Billy Frank) arrives. Nick and Kevin spar with rakes in a long, protracted, repetitive scene. After Kevin loses horribly, Amy berates him for his weaknesses while Daphne and Nick have sex in Nick's van in the background of the scene.While in pursuit of a burglar the next evening, Kevin stumbles across the vault, which contains a small group of hairy, demonic little aliens — the hobgoblins. They escape, leaving Kevin stunned. His boss, the elderly Mr. McCreedy, explains that the hobgoblins crash landed on the studio lot decades earlier, and he has been closely guarding them ever since. The hobgoblins have the hypnotic power to make a person's wildest fantasies come true; however, they also kill their victims in the process when people's fantasies turn against them.

The hobgoblins go straight to Kevin's house, where his friends are partying, as they are attracted by the bright lights. The hobgoblins quickly make their fantasies come true, but with dire consequences. The quiet, prudish Amy's fantasy leads her to the sleazy nightclub Club Scum. Kevin and the others follow her there. It turns out that Amy's deepest fantasy is to lose her sexual inhibitions and be a stripper.

The nightclub erupts into chaos while Kevin and his friends try to kill the rampaging hobgoblins. Nick is given a fantasy in which he leads a commando raid. In the melee, Nick is set on fire by a hand grenade thrown by his commanding officer and is apparently killed (again, his fantasy goes to extremes and turns against him), though he returns later in the movie, bandaged and on crutches, but otherwise unharmed. Kevin kills the hobgoblin in control of Amy before she can have sex with the scruffy bouncer Roadrash (Duane Whitaker). Although Amy is restored to her original personality, her experience leaves her less sexually repressed than she was before.

"It's a bonsai Bigfoot"

Thinking that all the hobgoblins are dead, Kevin, Amy, Kyle, and Daphne return to the lot to report back to Mr. McCreedy. Kevin is confronted by the burglar from earlier that night and beats him in a fight, finally proving his bravery to Amy. Kevin's victory is short lived as the burglar (yet another phantom created by the hobgoblins) pulls a gun from an ankle holster and aims it at Kevin. Just as the burglar is about to fire, McCreedy shoots the alien, thus saving Kevin's life. The remaining hobgoblins run back into the vault, which McCreedy has filled with explosives. The hobgoblins are then blown to pieces. Amy promises to have sex with Kevin, Nick returns to have sex with Daphne, and Kyle, odd man out, asks to use McCreedy's phone, presumably for more phone sex.

Background

The character actor who plays the bouncer in this film, Duane Whitaker, later got the role of the pawn shop owner in the 1994 hit film Pulp Fiction. This happened after filmmaker Quentin Tarantino, who worked at a video store at the time, saw Duane in this film.

The band playing at Club Scum are The Fontanelles, a relatively well-known punk rock group in the Los Angeles underground music scene at one time. The song they are performing is one of their better known releases, Kiss Kicker '99. The studio version can be heard here.

During the flashback where Mr. McCreedy describes how he first encountered the hobgoblins, he can be seen holding a promotional flyer for The Visitants, one of Rick Sloane's previous films.

Steven Boggs wore his own pink shorts in the movie.

Rick Sloane specifically wrote the role of McCreedy for Jeffrey Culver.

The Club Scum M.C. was originally a smaller part, but Rick Sloane was so impressed by Daran Norris's reading that Norris did in a number of different cartoon voices that he wrote more scenes for that particular character.

Angelyne and Sybil Danning were both considered for the role of Fantazia. Angelyne wasn't cast because she refused to memorize dialogue and only wanted to play herself. Moreover, Rick Sloane had to pass on Danning due to the fact that there wasn't enough money in the budget to afford her.

John Carradine was approached to play the old man who owns the movie studio, but his agent asked for too much money.

In 2007, Sloane announced his plans to make Hobgoblins 2. He did in 2009. [1]

Hobgoblins was one of the films selected to be part of the Hulu series "13 Nights of Elvira" in 2014. Rick Sloane operated a Hobgoblin puppet in the closing segment.

The Episode

Host Segments

Pearl sends...the movie

Prologue: Due to the Robert Palmer version of the song "I Didn't Mean To Turn You On", the SOL crew have been exposed to the concept of accidental and involutary turn-ons, with even the slightest gesture being construed as a attempt to turn each other on.

Mike, Crow, and Servo regret jumping on Pearl's couch.

Segment One: The on-turning has reached a stage of increasing malice with intentional turning on. Meanwhile Pearl is remodelling Castle Forrester, and her new couch has turned up early, having Brain Guy send it up to SOL for storage. However, Mike and the Bots jump up and down on it, with all manner of 'stainable liquids.' Pearl threatens swift retribution if they don't stop, but her words fall on deaf ears. So she sends them The Movie.

Segment Two: Due to the questionable stereotypes in the movie, Crow decides to create a film called "Let's Talk Women!", but his limited exposure to women outside of movies causes him to proclaim them to be mythical creatures. Mike reminds him of Pearl, but chokes when Crow demands that Mike name one other woman.

Mike and the Bots place dummy versions of themselves in an ill-conceived attempt to escape both the movie & the SOL.

Segment Three: Crow sets up a 'crisis hotline' to help people who have seen the film Hobgoblins, but Bobo abuses Crow's goodwill to discuss another less savory crisis...

Segment Four: Continuing to use cardboard cut-outs, Mike and the Bots unsuccessfully try to flee, with Brain Guy spending fruitless minutes trying to point out to Pearl and Bobo the ruse.

Segment Five:Servo is The Terminator, having traveled back in time to "take care of" Rick Sloane. Crow's film research points out he may have had opposite effect however. With a heavy heart, Pearl takes back the couch from the immature SOL crew, but the couch is no more safe from her minions either.

Stinger: The Hobgoblins ride around in a golf cart.

Trivia

It's a common misconception that writer/director Rick Sloane personally suggested the movie to Best Brains as a candidate for the MST treatment. Sloane has said that he sent another one of his movies (The Visitants) to Best Brains, which they rejected because it was too intentionally cheesy. The Brains asked him what else he had available so he sent them Hobgoblins.

In Experiment #1008 Final Justice, Servo identifies Greydon Clark as "...The produce of Hobgoblins! We're doomed!". Mr. Clark is not listed anywhere in the credits of Hobgoblins. If Clark was involved with the production of Hobgoblins, it has not been widely publicized. It is possible that Servo (or the writers) were mis-remembering.

Quotes & References

"Ah, Burgess Meredith's inside there reading."Referring to the Twilight Zone episode Time Enough At Last where actor Burgess Meredith played a bank teller who read books in a bank vault during his lunch break. Subsequently, this protects him from a nuclear blast which leaves him the sole survivor of the incident.

"Wow, David Crosby's eating in there!"Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young band member and co-founder David Crosby was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes due to excessive eating and rampant alcoholism. The riff here is on how overweight he was as a consequence; though he has thinned a bit since this episode aired.

"We on the road to nowhere...come on inside!"While Dennis is living his fantasy of being a rockstar, Crow sings the song "Road to Nowhere" by Talking Heads

"Paige Sullivan..."Servo is singing the name to the tune of "Ed Sullivan" from the musical Bye Bye Birdie.

As the name "TAMI BAKKE" appears: “Is she related to Wacky T. Bakke?”Wacky Tobacky (sp) is a colloquial name for marijuana, derived from the fact that it is often smoked like tobacco, but renders the user "wacky".

"This is a really cheap bio-pic on Jim Morrison..."Jim Morrison was the lead singer of the '60s band The Doors.

"We paid for this wing with the profits from D.C. Cab!"D.C. Cab is a 1983 comedy movie starring Mr. T.

"Used it to kill Archduke Ferdinand!"As Mr. McCreedy shows Kevin his pistol; Mike jokes on how he once used it to kill the Austrian prince Archduke Ferdinand, which consequently sparked World War I.

"The true story of Neil Peart."Neil Peart is the drummer for the Canadian progressive rock band Rush. Note that Crow mispronounces his last name as "Pert", rather than "Peert".

"They made love in their Chevy van, and that's NOT all right with me!"Crow is paraphrasing the song "Chevy Van" by Sammy Johns. Note that the van featured in this movie is actually a Dodge rather than a Chevrolet.

"They've stumbled onto Mel's Rock Pile!""Mel's Rock Pile" was a recurring SCTV sketch in which the nebbishy Mel (played by Eugene Levy) played music while his teenage audience danced around him (and often made fun of him).

"Take on me...take, me, on!"Lyrics from the a-ha song "Take On Me". The video takes place inside of a newspaper comic, which the black and white security cam footage resembles.

"Invest in arbitrage and read Jay McInerney!"Arbitrage is a term used in stock trading and other forms of high finance. Jay McInerney is best known for his 1984 novel Bright Lights, Big City, which was turned into a movie starring Michael J. Fox.

"That's not a woman, that's David Lee Roth"David Lee Roth is a heavy metal/hard rock volcalist and known for wearing spandex clothing. Crow refers to David Lee Roth when Fantasia is trying to push the car down the hill, in which her spandex pants are visible.

"I don't like Shari Lewis' new show."Shari Lewis was the creator and host of the educational TV show Lamb Chop's Play-Along, whose title character was a hand puppet like the hobgoblins, but slightly less creepy.

"This guy gets his kicks calling about used Vegas!"The Chevrolet Vega was a compact car built during the 1970s.

"Wilkommen, bienvenue..."A reference to "Wilkommen", a song from the Broadway musical Cabaret(and a comparison of the androgynous MC at Club "Scum" with the androgynous MC in that movie.)

"Wow, this makes me want to take out my extensive Adam Ant collection"Adam Ant is the alias of British punk/rock musician Stuart Leslie Goddard. He was lead singer of the band Adam and the Ants during the late 70's and early 80's before going solo.

"'Hobgoblins' is usually shown on a double bill with 'The Harder They Come'."The Harder They Come is a 1972 film starring reggae musician Jimmy Cliff. The implication is that being stoned will make Hobgoblins more watchable.

"Just as long as Demi Moore doesn't come out "shaking her saline bags."Most likely referring to actress Demi Moore's starring role in the critically panned movie Striptease.

"Fresh Fish!"A reference to a Laurel and Hardy sketch in which they sell fish out of a truck.

"This fight is making nostalgic for the movie Gymkata."Gymkata is a 1985 gymnastics/martial arts movie, and as Servo indicates it's usually regarded as being close to the caliber of movie that aired on MST.

"He found Ben Stein's money!"Win Ben Stein's Money was a Comedy Central gameshow from the late 90's. The prize money was actually put up by the show's sponsors.

"The Koalas are attacking! We hate QANTAS! Grrrrr!"The bots point out the Hobgoblins resemblance to Koalas, making reference to the fact that QANTAS is the national airline for Australia, the animal's native country.

"Hey, don't scratch the Quarterflash!"Quarterflash is a 80's band best known for the song "Harden My Heart".